In the art of earth drilling apparatus the procedure of handling and storing sectional drill pipe members has long been one in which improvements have been sought. The problem of unscrewing the threaded joints connecting the sectional drill pipes has resulted in numerous devices for clamping and holding one pipe section while rotating the other to unscrew the threaded connection therebetween. U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,412 which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention discloses an example of a power operated holding and wrenching device for breaking loose joints of threaded sectional drill pipe. The aforementioned patent also discloses a storage rack for holding a plurality of sectional drill pipes.
In addition to the problem of unscrewing the tightly connected joints between sectional drill pipes or rods, handling these members when lengthening or shortening the drill string is a time consuming process due in part to their weight and length. Although various types of power actuated drill pipe holding and wrenching devices are known there has remained a long felt need to reduce the time required to handle the sectional drilling members when lenghtening or shortening the drill stem. The present invention is directed to improvements in handling and storage mechanism which improves the operation in which sectional drilling members are added to or removed from the drill stem and requires substantially no manual effort in handling the drilling members or the mechanism itself.